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Monday, September 30, 2013

As Democrats and Republicans squabble over federal funding and a partial shutdown of the federal government looms, many in the press are mindlessly parroting the Democratic Party's talking points about the shutdown. But what's the reality? Following are three false claims regarding the looming shutdown, and why they are lies….

Devin Nunes is doing his best Marco Rubio impersonation. He’s yet another Hispanic fake Republican, who is only in the GOP, in order to sabotage it. How long before Nunes and Rubio pull the party switch they’ve been planning?

As a government shutdown looms, tensions are rising within Republican ranks.

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) had choice words for fellow House Republicans who are willing to see the government shut down over their opposition to Obamacare: "Lemmings with suicide vests," he called them.

"They have to be more than just a lemming. Because jumping to your death is not enough," he said.

"You have this group saying somehow if you’re not with them, you’re with Obamcare. If you’re not with their plan -- exactly what they want to do, you’re with Obamcare. It’s getting a little old," he said.

[N.S.: I don’t know if Nunes is mispronouncing “Obamacare,” or if the Post misspelled it.]

Nunes said he would support House leadership's latest strategy: A bill that would keep the government open but delay the individual mandate for a year. But he said that approach means a government shutdown will be all but certain.

The result for his party? "You guys ever watch 16 Candles?" he asked a small group of reporters. "You guys remember Long Duk Dong at the end? That’s going to be us tomorrow, waking up on the grass, crashed automobile. That’s us."

The beloved 1980s movie ends with the foreign exchange student passed out drunk on a lawn after crashing his wealthy suburban Chicago host family's car.

How come we never hear of these colored psychos pulling this sort of stunt on their own kind?

The propaganda involved in these cases always either implies or says outright that these attacks are like natural disasters that either couldn’t be prevented, or could be, if only Republicans paid the necessary money for treatment of schizophrenics. The advocates also typically tell us that schizophrenics are overwhelmingly “non-violent” (i.e., non-evil). If that’s the case, then how come we keep hearing of these attacks?

By far the best reader comment on this story, or any story I’ve read the past week or so was by Jonathan Walder.

Maimed innocents are the tax we pay to live in a liberal society. And savages like Howard Mickens are the tax collectors.

Suspect accused of pushing woman under train in cu...: Howard J. Mickens of White Plains, is driven from the MTA police department in Mount Vernon. Mickens is accused of pushing a woman to the tracks in front of a train at the White Plains Metro-North station.
Written by Ken Valenti and Lee Higgins

Howard J. Mickens, 39, of White Plains, sits in a police car as he is driven from the MTA police department in Mount Vernon Sept. 25, 2013. Mickens is accused of pushing a woman to the tracks in front of a train at the White Plains Metro-North station earlier in the day.

WHITE PLAINS — A homeless man with a lengthy rap sheet was charged Wednesday with attempted murder after being accused of pushing a woman in front of a train at the White Plains station, railroad officials said.

The woman, who is in her 20s, was struck by an empty northbound train and suffered “serious” leg trauma, officials said.

She was interviewed by Metropolitan Transportation Authority police at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, where she was scheduled to undergo surgery.

The MTA identified the suspect as Howard J. Mickens, 39, who lives in a White Plains shelter. He was charged with attempted murder, railroad spokesman Salvatore Arena said.

“Our police were on the scene and made a quick collar,” Metro-North Railroad spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said.

According to MTA police, Mickens has 11 previous arrests, including five that were described as alleged violent felonies. He has several convictions, but officials could not provide an exact number.

Mickens was arraigned Wednesday in Westchester County Court, Arena said, and was being held at a detention center.

The accident [What accident?! Nice try at confusion.] was reported about 11:10 a.m. Witnesses said they saw the woman being pushed, Anders said. [Since this is not a quote, I am going to surmise that the Journal News changed Anders’ term to “accident.”] She said investigators planned to review video of the incident from security cameras at the station.

The woman was able to get quick attention from MTA police because additional officers were on the scene to handle the influx of passengers coming from the New Haven Line, where service was disrupted by a failed electrical feeder cable, Anders said.

“Officers climbed down to the track to calm her down,” she said.

[To “calm her down,” or to save her life?]

Gary Waxman, 50, who runs Waxman’s News at the train station, said earlier that police arrested a man without incident outside the station after four witnesses pointed him out.
Waxman said he’d seen the man hanging out at the station on and off for six months.

He said there is an ongoing problem of homeless people hanging out at the station.

“We had a day already of heck,” Waxman said, “because the New Haven Line’s been down and then this happens. It’s a tragedy. They have to get rid of the homeless people in front of the station here. It’s a detriment.”

[This guy may be only 50, but he sounds much older. Very old school. A younger person would be more likely to use profanity, while drowning his observations in pc-babble.]

The White Plains case comes on the heels of a Long Island Rail Road death in August and two well-publicized deaths on the subway tracks in New York City in December.

On Dec. 3, a homeless [black] man [Naeem Davis] pushed [Asian] Ki Suck Han, 58, onto subway tracks in front of a train in Times Square. Han was killed. On Dec. 27, a [Hispanic] woman [Erica Menendez] pushed a [n Indian immigrant] man [Sunando Sen] to his death in front of a train on an elevated platform in Queens. Then in August, a Freeport, N.Y., man [whom the media have refused to name] was electrocuted by the third rail on the LIRR when he was pushed onto the tracks in Bellmore [by black Niheim Levy].

Minutes ago, either morning host Robin Meade or “reporter” Phillips said “parents need to know” about this, and “Kids call it a game, but it’s not a game.”

What would we do without these people?

Apparently, since every sentient being in America already knew about this phenomenon for as much as three years and change, the newshounds at HLN realized that they couldn’t cover it up any longer, and decided to do a pseudo-news report on it.

Of course, Phillips neglected to inform viewers that it’s only black “kids” who call it a “game,” and that they only target whites and Asians. The unexplained, accompanying video was of black kids walking outside, next to a school, and sucker punching a middle-aged, white teacher, who made the mistake of walking past them, without his guard up.

You may never turn your back on blacks, and never let down your guard around even one of them. The same advice applies to the MSM.

If the race-deniers really believed what they say, they would have to argue along the following lines:

• Race does not exist;

• Affirmative action presupposes the reality of race;

• Therefore, affirmative action cannot possibly be practiced.

Oddly enough, the most vehement race-deniers are all adamant supporters of affirmative action/diversity/whatever, i.e., racial spoils for non-white races. (To the degree that non-blacks get affirmative action, it is based on their being considered honorary blacks.)

Some critics would explain that the race-deniers, all of whom that I know of are white, are delusional. I have a simpler explanation: They’re liars. They know damned well that the races are real, and moreover, they are obsessed with that reality. But they deny the reality out of one side of their mouths that they obsessively, if only tacitly, affirm out of the other side, as a political tactic, in order to disarm and destroy other whites.

The race-denial/anti-racist movement is a communist front. Its proponents seek to impose a communist dictatorship on America, and see whites as the chief impediment to their goal. Thus, whites—except for the race-denialists, or so they think—must all either die, or disappear through racial intermarriage.

Humans have an exquisite sensitivity to differences between their group and other groups. Group conflict is as old as our species. Humans are prepared to fight each other for all kinds of reasons: ethnicity, language, nationality, religion, and even for political reasons, but of all the kinds of conflict, racial conflict is the most chronic and difficult to control, and that’s because race is part of biology. It is immediately visible, and is usually an indicator of differences in behavior and culture and not just a difference in appearance.

Wherever you find people of more than one race trying to share the same territory, there is conflict….

The purpose of the colony [of Jamestown] was to find gold, but the intentions of the colonists towards the Indians were entirely benevolent. In fact, the English, aware of the Spanish reputation for brutality in the New World, consciously wanted to be different and better.

The English, moreover, had no preconceived notions of racial superiority, and saw the Indians—or “naturals” as they called them—as essentially no different from themselves. This was in direct contrast to their view of Moors or black Africans whom they did think of as aliens. Some of the Jamestown colonists believed that the “naturals” really were white people whose skin was dark because they painted themselves so often.

In any case, the 100 or so men who started the colony were very careful to find a place for their encampment that was unclaimed and uninhabited. They wished to cause no offense. The leader of the colony, Edward-Maria Wingfield, decreed that since the English came in peace, there would be no fortifications and no training in arms.

There was contact with the Indians, mostly peaceful but sometimes tense, and before the encampment was two weeks old, hundreds of Indians attacked the camp in an attempt to wipe out the colony. There were deaths on both sides, and the English would have been massacred if they had not panicked the Indians with cannon fire. It was only after this narrow escape that the English built the three-sided stockade so familiar to American school children.

The colony went through very hard times, but survived. Despite that bad start before the walls went up, the English genuinely tried to have good relations with the Indians, but to their disappointment, it was the tribes who were closest to them who liked them the least and the ones furthest away who were friendly and willing to trade. This seems to be a general principle of race relations: they are better at a distance....

Friday, September 27, 2013

Marlon James is a racist fraud. His "conclusions" were nothing but the assumptions he started out with. All these guys always say the same thing: Institutional racism is keeping black and Hispanic kids down, because racist white teachers don't believe they can learn. You have to racially purge all of the qualified, competent white teachers, and replace them with incompetent, racist blacks and Hispanics, and rig the tests, so the colored children's scores shoot up.

There. I could have saved you $110,000. Then again, the Board was just paying James whitemail, to begin with. The members probably knew what James' report's "conclusions" would be, before they even cut the check for him.

Paul Panos, on the other hand, is a hero. I wish I had some neighbors like him, so we could support each other at school meetings in NYC!

WINDSOR — After a year of disagreements over the Equity and Excellence Review at Windsor High School, the school board had an opportunity Thursday to ask followup [sic] questions about the study's findings.

Speaking with the study's author, Marlon James, via Skype, school board members sought answers to questions raised following its release in August.

The study conducted by James, an assistant professor at Loyola University Chicago, sought to find underlying causes of the achievement gap between white and minority students at the high school.

[You mean, like minority students’ lower IQs and weaker work ethic?]

The study concluded that educational expectations and opportunities were more plentiful for white students than their African American and Hispanic counterparts and that "institutional racism" is part of the problem.

[Liar! If “racism” is part of the problem, it’s anti-white racism. Otherwise, they never would have hired James for his phony “study.”]

The study was supposed to take place over three years at a cost of about $330,000. But it was called off after the first year after the university determined that constant battles among board members and the politicization of the study was causing harm to the community.

[“The politicization of the study”? It was a political power play, before James was even hired.]

In a mostly civil discussion, James repeated the basis for much of his findings, citing interviews with students and teachers, the disparity between whites and minorities in the most challenging courses and a tracking system that keeps minorities in lower-level courses.

Board member Paul Panos vehemently disagreed with James' conclusions, prompting the most contentious exchanges of the night, including one in which James asked if Panos was calling the children who were quoted in the study "liars" and Panos responded "No, I'm saying you're lying."

The exchange prompted one parent in the audience to say "close the achievement gap, that's what we want."

[No, you don’t. You want everything rigged.]

James said the school system will never be able to close the gap until it increases the number of minority teachers and rids itself of the notion that some kids can't learn.

[Surprise, surprise: the ubiquitous demand to shovel millions of dollars into the pockets of other incompetent, racist black and Hispanic “educators.” Who could’ve seen that coming?]

When first I heard of Moslem “honor killings,” as an American I thought to myself, “Oh, someone must have killed a man who had raped his sister or daughter.”

When I learned that the real meaning of “honor killings” was that, if a man rapes your sister, salvaging your family honor means having to murder your own sister, the victim, I was outraged, and have never lost my sense of outrage at this evil ideology and system of practices. Indeed, I believe that the most economical way to introduce an “infidel” to the evil of Islam, is to explain to him this practice, and its rationalization.

Well, assuming she is telling the truth about the man she dispatched, one Turkish woman had a very unislamic, but eminently sensible and moral response to the soiling of her honor.

The story below opens, “An argument that began over a child's balloon could send two men to prison for a very long time. They're accused of opening fire on a house hunter as she was getting ready to show a property last year in Clarksville.”

But that’s not the story of the accompanying (linked) video. A black woman (left unsaid and unnamed) arranged to see a house that was for sale, on the pretext that she was a potential buyer, but more likely just to terrorize the white realtor lady, Tammy Earp. Note that the realtor had already taken the precaution of having her non-realtor boyfriend along to bodyguard her.

And unless the vernacular is much different in Clarksville, “a house hunter” is a customer, not a realtor.

There was no “child’s balloon.” The black woman stole the balloon that was tied to the house to show it was for sale, and gave it to her daughter. Tammy Earp’s boyfriend demanded either the child or her mother return the purloined balloon. The mother then told the whites that she was calling someone to come and kill them.

As the white couple sought to flee, a car pulled up with five black men inside. The driver, James Bagwell, cut off the couple, and one of Bagwell’s accomplices, Detarius Curry, fired multiple shots at the terrified couple, but missed them, hitting their car instead.

In other words, just as in the racially-motivated murder of James Paroline in Seattle in 2008 and thousands of other violent crimes every year, the black woman was the criminal “mastermind” here, but just as in the Paroline war crime and virtually all others, the mastermind was never charged. Being born a black woman in America—or being a fraudulent “refugee” like the Jane Doe calling herself “Nafissatou Diallo”—is the next best thing to being royalty.

James Bagwell opted for a jury trial, because he thinks it was an injustice to charge him with attempted murder. Never mind that he was guilty of just that. You see, in his mind of black privilege, his act of driving racist, aspiring murderer Detarius Curry to kill the white devils has no legal ramifications.

Note too that the WSMV reporters utterly downplayed the attempted murders, as if Curry had only sought to frighten and not murder the couple.

How many times a day do blacks perpetrate hate crimes like this in America, whether involving beatings with hands and feet, blunt objects, sharp objects, blunt objects and firearms? One hundred? One thousand? Ten thousand? One-hundred thousand? More than that? And how much longer will it be before blacks who commit this sort of crime against whites aren't even prosecuted?

CLARKSVILLE, TN (WSMV) -
An argument that began over a child's balloon could send two men to prison for a very long time. They're accused of opening fire on a house hunter as she was getting ready to show a property last year in Clarksville.

Following a previous guilty plea by the accused shooter to a charge of aggravated assault, the man believed to be his accomplice decided to try his fate with a jury trial.

On Wednesday, the jury found 22-year-old James Bagwell guilty of two counts of second-degree attempted murder as well as three other reckless endangerment charges.

Things turned violent after a 2-year-old got her hands on the balloon [false!] tied to a home that agent Tammy Earp planned to show to an interested couple in September 2012.

When Earp's boyfriend told the child to put it back, an argument ensued [false: Premeditated attempted murder is not “an argument”] with some of the residents along Barkwood Drive.

A Ford Thunderbird with five men inside soon arrived and tried to block Earp's path. As the men exited the Thunderbird, officers said one of them started shooting.

Handgun rounds struck the door and hood of the woman's car as well as a nearby house.

Earlier this year, Detarius Curry, 20, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of aggravated assault in the shooting and faces a sentence of eight to 12 years in prison.

[At the CBS web story, the wife’s picture is courtesy of the Texas Department of Public Safety. No explanation is provided as to whether she had been arrested, or employed by DPS. The stories I’ve read so far on this atrocity lead me to believe that the media don’t want to delve too much into it. Wrong perp.]

RICE (CBSDFW.COM) - A 33-year-old Navarro County mother shot and killed her husband and her three sons — ages 4, 8, and 10 — before turning a .22 caliber semi-automatic rifle on herself.

“The preliminary autopsies have revealed all three children along with Israel Alvarez died of homicidal violence by gunshot wounds. Guadalupe Ronquillo-Ovalle died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” according to a statement released by the Navarro County Sheriff’s Department.

Investigators say the shootings happened sometime late Thursday or early Friday. The children did not attend school on Friday — and a family member found the bodies inside the family’s home Sunday evening, after several unsuccessful attempts to get in touch with them.

Investigators say Ronquillo-Ovalle did not leave behind a note and there is no clear motive for the shootings at this time.

“Certainly we believe it is going to be difficult to find a motive in this case. We’re going to be conducting interviews with neighbors, friends of the victims to try to determine if there is any motive that we can uncover in this case,” said Sheriff Elmer Tanner, who said deputies will continue to investigate the case as a murder-suicide.

Two weeks ago [on 9/11], Alavarez, 33, was arrested on a class C [domestic violence misdemeanor] assault charge, spent two days in jail and ordered to pay a fine. According to investigators, his wife, Ronquillo-Ovalle, said he pushed her.

“We cannot determine much from that incident, other than that was an isolated incident involving family violence,” said Tanner about Alavarez’s recent arrest. “We can only assume that there were problems in the household that led to that case of family violence, and there may have been other incidents that were taking place.”

[Either CBS is repeating a statement Sheriff Tanner had made before learning that the wife was the mass murderer, as takes the last two paragraphs of this story from a previous report, or Tanner is an imbecile.

There was no known incident of “family violence” prior to the wife murdering everyone. I’m not counting her charge that her husband “shoved” her as “assault,” because it’s ridiculously trivial, besides which we now see that the wife was the violent one. So maybe she lied to police, in the first place. Even if Tanner was speaking before learning who the real shooter was, he was a mush-mouth. What, that might not have been the first time that one spouse shoved the other? By that measure, every marriage in America is a scene of “domestic violence.”]

Tanner said each of the victims had a gunshot wound to the upper torso and Ronquillo-Ovalle had a single gun shot wound to the head. Authorities have not released where the bodies were located inside the home, although Tanner said there was no indication that anyone was trying to escape the home at the time of the shootings. Authorities do not believe that there is a suspect is on the loose, or that the community is in any danger. The investigation has been confined to inside of the home.

“I have been in law enforcement for approximately 25 years, and I can not recall during my career an incident where a mother was the shooter of her own children,” said Tanner. “This is a traumatic incident. Obviously, this is a situation where children are involved. A homicide by itself is traumatic. But when you involve children of the ages of 10, 8 and 4 — most of our officers, first responders, they all have children, and that is a bad situation for anybody to be asked to go in and investigate.”

GREENVILLE -- Authorities are releasing new information following Friday's shooting in Greenville that left four [white] people hurt before police shot the [black] gunman.

Lakim Anthony Faust, 23, is the man authorities identified as the shooter in Friday's incident.

Police Chief Hassan Aden says Faust has no significant criminal history, but has had run-ins with the law in the past including resisting arrest in minor property charges.

Chief Aden describes Friday's shooting as a complex active shooting event. He tells us there are three different crime scenes investigators are looking at including the parking lot of Kellum Law Firm where one [white] person was shot, the parking lot of a Walmart where three [white] people were shot and Hooker Road, where Faust was shot.

Chief Aden says more than 100 rounds of shotgun ammunition were found with Faust on Friday. A search warrant at Faust's home uncovered shotgun shell boxes, computers and various documents, but right now, at this point in the investigation, authorities believe this was a random shooting.

Greenville Mayor Allen Thomas said this is a significant crime in this community's history.

“This is a tragedy but you can look at it for what it has done to the community to bring us together,” he said.

Officers involved in the incident are now on paid administrative leave. Their names have not been released.

"It's a very traumatic experience. Many us that have been in this business for years have gone through it, and understand that they have a lot of needs right now, and that we need to take care of them,” said Chief Aden.

The four victims are in the hospital in serious condition, but are expected to recover. Faust is also in serious condition but is also expected to recover. When he is released, he is expected to face four counts of attempted murder among other charges. Chief Aden says that the FBI is investigating the case.

GREENVILLE, N.C. — A man who shot four people near a Greenville Walmart in June picked out his victims because they were white, according to several indictments handed down against him.

Lakim Faust had more than 100 rounds of ammunition when he started shooting at people at a law firm and a shopping center in June, authorities said.

A grand jury indicted Faust on 14 charges Monday, including four counts of attempted first-degree murder.

Faust, who is black, picked out his victims based on their race, according to the indictments. The documents didn't specify why Faust wanted to shoot white people, and police have not talked about why he picked out his targets.

Police said Faust's first victim on June 21 was an insurance adjustor in the parking lot of a law firm. He then crossed a five-lane highway and shot three more people in the parking lot of a Walmart, investigators said.

Three of the four people wounded in the shooting suffered permanent and debilitating injuries, according to the indictments. Details of those injuries were not specified.

Faust, 23, was shot by police. He recovered and is now in jail.

Police seized computers and documents from Faust's home that showed he had a plan for the attack and wanted to shoot a large number of people, investigators said.

An atheist was seated next to a little girl on an airplane and he turned to her and said, “Do you want to talk? Flights go quicker if you strike up a conversation with your fellow passenger.”

The little girl, who had just started to read her book, replied to the total stranger,
“What would you want to talk about?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” said the atheist. “How about why there is no God, or no Heaven or Hell, or no life after death?” as he smiled smugly.

“Okay,” she said. “Those could be interesting topics but let me ask you a question first. A horse, a cow, and a deer all eat the same stuff – grass. Yet a deer excretes little pellets, while a cow turns out a flat patty, but a horse produces clumps.
Why do you suppose that is?”

The atheist, visibly surprised by the little girl’s intelligence, thinks about it and says, “Hmmm, I have no idea.”

To which the little girl replies, “Do you really feel qualified to discuss God, Heaven and Hell, or life after death, when you don’t know shit?”

Big Fish is on the short list of my sentimental favorites, with Field of Dreams, Terms of Endearment, and The Best Years of Our Lives. I was hoping that Albert Finney would finally get his long-deserved Oscar for it, and the picture would get nominated for everything, but alas, he wasn’t even nominated, and the picture was only up for Danny Elfman’s ambitious score. It did poorly at the box office.

Edward Bloom is "a very social person," as he says of himself. A scenery-chewing fellow, he has been taking center stage since childhood with his yarns about "uncatchable fish," among other things. Since marrying his one true love, Sandra (one of the "uncatchable fish"), he has woven many more tales, such as the story of the birth of another "uncatchable fish," his son and only child, Will.

Most of Big Fish is told in flashback from Edward Bloom's (Albert Finney) deathbed to the old man's French photojournalist daughter-in-law. Bloom's dour journalist son, Will (Billy Crudup, in a thankless role), who works for UPI, wants the old man, who was on the road as a salesman during most of Will's childhood, to finally "be himself" and "tell the truth" about his life before he goes. "I've been myself, since the day I was born!" remonstrates the father from bed.

The viewer is invited to absorb Edward's stories, and decide for himself whether and to what degree they are true. As Sandra says to William in a moment much played in TV ads for the picture, "Not all of your father's stories are complete fabrications."

Edward Bloom (played by Perry Walston as a young boy and Ewan McGregor, who looks like an undersized Conan O'Brien, as a high school student and twenty and thirty-something) grew up in Ashton, Alabama, a town much too small for someone with his outsized ambitions. Already the touchdown-scoring, science-fair-winning, saving-a-dog-from-a-burning house star of the town, Edward encounters a 15-foot man (played by Matthew McGrory, who actually lists at 7'6") and decides to shake off the dust of that little town and see the world.

And so he does. He travels as near as the next-door paradise-on-earth of Spectre, Alabama, and as far away as China. He's in the circus, he's in the war (what war we're not told, though it seems like Korea, and we never know what year it is), he's selling "handy" contraptions, and he does good deeds. He crosses paths with Siamese twins (Ada and Arlene Tai) and dog-men (let yourself be surprised), or so he says. And some Big Fish. Always, it is his "destiny" he is consciously seeking and yet, for all his ambitions, Edward Bloom lives for love.

Big Fish is certainly a fantasy. Director Tim Burton and screenwriter John August (working from Daniel Wallace's novel) refuse to take the easy way out by saying, "Aw shucks, folks, we're just having some fun." Remember, not all of Edward Bloom's stories are complete fabrications. While watching Big Fish, I couldn't help thinking about another film adaptation of a picaresque novel on the fantastic adventures of a Southern protagonist that also begins in Alabama, Forrest Gump. But while Forrest Gump chronicled the "real" (within its fictional world) exploits of its decent simpleton-hero who stumbles from one dramatic, true historical event to the next, Big Fish tells stories about the adventures of its decent, but far less simpleminded, protagonist who changes many lives on a much more intimate level.

Big Fish required a scenery-chewing star. Although Albert Finney is on camera much less as the dying Edward than Ewan McGregor is as his younger self, this is Finney's movie. Finney is one of those larger-than-life presences who can dominate a scene without stealing it, like the great stage actor that he is, and his voiceovers introduce each of McGregor's adventures. Ewan McGregor is quite charming as the younger Edward, and bears a resemblance to the young Finney, but he is no Finney. Alison Lohman and Jessica Lange are both luminous as the younger and older Sandra Bloom.

While I am fully aware of Lange's far leftwing politics, she is so charming in her way of presenting her positions in talk-show appearances that she is the rare Hollywood lefty who does not make it darned-near impossible for non-lefties to enjoy her work without always thinking about her repulsive politics. I've had a crush on her for over 20 years.

Lohman, while smaller and more petite than Lange, is nonetheless believable as her younger self. Note that while Lange is on screen only a few minutes (Lohman, who is on screen even less, gets very few lines), she is marvelous. There are too many brief but memorable roles in the large cast to cite more than a few. Steve Buscemi plays a sometimes poet. A restrained Robert Guillaume shines as the family doctor, Dr. Bennett, who acts as an intermediary between the poetic and prosaic worlds of the Bloom family. (Guillame, by the way, who in 1999 suffered a stroke, looks great.)

The one heartbreaking character of Big Fish is that of Jenny, who appears at age 8 (Hailey Anne Nelson), around 28, and then at around 48 (both times by Helena Bonham Carter). Nelson and Carter are both irresistible in their incarnations of her. Carter also plays an old witch.

Danny Elfman's original score is alternately whimsical, poignant, and ebullient. He got a well-deserved Academy Award nomination. That was the only nomination for a movie that deserved, in my estimation, 10 or 11, and should have won Finney his first Oscar. Alas, as is too often the case with director Tim Burton's movies, Big Fish did not do well at the box office.

Of the storyteller's trade, Burton tells us that good stories may involve exaggeration, but are not necessarily complete fabrications. Rather, they are woven from the fabric of life.

The main extra the Big Fish DVD offers is a director's commentary, which I suggest you see after having seen the movie several times and formulated your own opinion. [Postscript, September 25, 2011: Besides, Tim Burton is about as good at explaining how he makes movies as Yogi Berra was at explaining how he hit.]

A melancholy postscript: Matthew McGrory, who played the endearing giant in Big Fish, died August 9 of last year [2007], at the age of 32.

The Soundtrack

This is one of those mixed soundtracks, with Danny Elfman’s grand, original score alternating with popular music from the era of each episode in this bold, beautiful picaresque story.

My heartfelt thanks go out to SoulCollector12, who undertook the yeoman labors of uploading seven tracks, though only six remain. Download them, while you can, before the copyright cops catch up to you!

It looks like the man killed the woman and their three sons, 4,8,10, before shooting himself on Thursday or early Friday. She’d had him arrested for “shoving” her on September 11. He spent two days in jail, pleaded guilty to “Class C family violence” and paid a $367 fine. Six days later, he got even.

As The Boss said when I read her this story, if shoving is enough to get you jailed, every man and woman in a relationship this country will be going in and out of jail. In the past, police didn’t arrest a man for this garbage; I smell feminists at work. (And beyond the feminist angle, Texas justice has gotten extremely pc.)

Since the killer was likely an “immigrant,” this would also be a case of Immigrant Mass Murder Syndrome. (The news report said nothing of the couple’s citizenship status.)

NAVARRO COUNTY — Three children and two adults were found dead inside their home Sunday evening in Navarro County, the sheriff's office reported.

Sheriff Elmer Tanner identified the dead as 33-year-old Israel Alvarez and his wife 33-year-old Guadalupe Ronquillo-Ovalle. Their three sons—ages 4, 8 and 10—were also identified among the deceased. All five had gunshot wounds to their upper torsos and authorities said they are investigating the case as a murder-suicide.

"Based on the evidence we've seen there at the residence and ... where the evidence is located in comparison to the bodies ... we're working this case as a murder-suicide," Tanner said.

"We're not confirming at this point and time who we believe to be the alleged shooter," he said.

The sheriff said a .22 caliber semi-automatic long rifle was found at the scene.
Authorities received a previous 911 call to the residence on Sept. 11. According to Tanner, Alvarez's wife said her husband shoved her during an altercation. She sustained no injuries.

"Mr. Alvarez was arrested for Class C family violence and brought to the Navarro County Justice Center," the sheriff said.

Alvarez pleaded guilty, paid a $367 fine and was released two days after the arrest.
In a statement posted on the department's Facebook page, Tanner said dispatchers received a 911 call from Alvarez's father at about 7 p.m. The caller said five members of his family were dead in the home in the 700 block of NW 0149 near Rice.

Tanner said while he could not confirm the time or date of their deaths, he said the last confirmed day someone visited with one of the family members was Thursday afternoon. The children also attended Rice Elementary School that day but not Friday.

"A homicide by itself is traumatic," Tanner said. "But when you involve children of ages 10, 8 and 4, most of our officers, first responders, they all have children and that is a bad situation for anybody to be asked to go in and investigate. With that being said, I feel like I need to say this: we need to remember. I know that we will take the time to remember those victims and their families this morning. Our prayers need to go out to them and be with them because there are a lot of people who have been touched by this unfortunate incident."

The official causes of deaths are pending results from examinations by American Forensics in Dallas.

Please remember these are real people who died, a whole family. Have some respect for lives lost and stop looking for someone to hate. Even if as it seems one of the dead killed the rest, those children and the other adult did not deserve this. Violence and tragedy in a family can happen anywhere and regardless of race, income or status.

I responded,

Thread Nazi Donna Arthur,

I can see that there’s some sort of pc attitude that you’re trying to impose on the other readers, but I can’t grasp the specifics. Or is that the point: That we should turn off our brains, and be satisfied with Donna Arthur-approved clichés like,

‘It was such a senseless killing,’ and

‘The dead were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.’

To forbid people from hating evildoers is itself evil. When people don’t hate those who are evil, they will then hate the virtuous. People have a need to hate; the moral question is whether they will hate the right people or the wrong people. You clearly want them to hate the wrong people.

To shut off one’s reason is less than human.

What do we know? The parents were likely immigrants. Unless you’re rich, being an immigrant is typically very stressful. On top of that, the mother had had the husband arrested seven or eight days earlier, at which point he had to endure the humiliation of being handcuffed in front of his sons, spending two days in jail, and paying a fine that probably would have been substantial for him. All because he “shoved” her?

And what about the cops? Arresting a man for “shoving” the mother of his children? She probably shoved him plenty of times. This smells like there were feminists in the background, who got police practices changed.

Your claim that “Violence and tragedy in a family can happen anywhere and regardless of race, income or status” is vacuous and irrelevant. If you are saying that all races and classes are equally hit by such violence, you’re a liar. If that’s not what you’re saying, then you’re saying nothing.

Those poor boys. They had a wicked mother, an evil father, and assorted meddlers. And now they’re dead.

“We got some Latino cousins, we got some Asian cousins, we got some Native-American cousins, we got all kind of cousins,” said Lewis, who spoke Thursday at the annual political conference of the Congressional Black Caucus.

“Cousins need to get together because if we’re going to be [part of the non-white] majority, it makes sense for black people in this country to get down with immigration reform,” said Lewis, whose ACORN group was formally disbanded in 2010 after a series of scandals.

Lewis did not mention solidarity with whites, or with people who define themselves as Americans, in her appeal for power.

“Everyone, even all white folks in this country, acknowledge that in a minute, [the] United States of America will be a new majority, will be majority minority, a brand-new thing,” she said.

In 2012, “for the first time ever in history, African-Americans outvoted white Americans. Oooh. That’s the fear of the white man. That could change everything. That’s why [immigration] should matter to us,” she declared.

Lewis got only modest applause from the room of 300 attendees, nearly all of whom were black.

But her appeal for non-white solidarity was backed up by New York Democratic Rep. Yvette Clarke.

“What will happen with comprehensive immigration reform will be a new landscape of humanity in the United States of America,” Clarke told the attendees.

“America is a shape-shifter, and based on who’s here, in what numbers and at what time, determines the political outcomes,” she said. Blacks should cooperate with Latinos, she said, adding “we all have skin in the game, literally.”

The racial appeal was echoed by William Spriggs, chief economist at the AFL-CIO. “If we are going to be the new majority, we’re going to have to start acting like the new majority and start setting the new rules,” he said.

Once Congress approves an immigration increase, minorities should demand more, said Chicago Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a leading advocate of the pending Senate bill,

“The next day after we pass it, you know we’re not going to be satisfied, we’re going to come back,” he said. “We’re going to have a civil rights act, we’re going to have a voting rights act… Nobody is leaving this fight once we conclude this first chapter,” he said.

“Hopefully, in 30 years, [we] can bring immigrants… from all over the world,” Gutierrez said. [N.S.: Excepting white countries, that is.]

The call for solidarity among non-whites was commingled with some non-racial calls for solidarity of working-class Americans.

African-Americans should not object to gains by immigrants, said Spriggs, who became a union economist after leaving an assistant secretary job at the Obama Department of Labor.

Other attendees complained about immigrants’ refusal to hire African-Americans or to accept civil-rights laws, and the commonplace stealing of Social Security Numbers.

Currently, the formal unemployment rate among African-Americans is 13 percent. However, the formal number understates the level of unemployment. For example, fewer than half of black men aged between 18 and 30 have full-time jobs.

Last June, President Barack Obama bypassed Congress’ opposition to an amnesty for younger illegal immigrants, and has awarded work-permits to almost 500,000 young illegal immigrants.

This July, with support from Obama, the Senate passed an immigration bill that would provide work permits to roughly 33 million immigrants and create a pool of roughly 2 million blue-collar and university-trained guest-workers, over the next decade.

Advocates say increased immigration will spur the economy and fund a bigger government.

But studies of increased immigration suggest the economic gains will go to immigrants and company owners. Some attendees said the caucus should focus more clearly on issues of concern to black Americans.

“We are the last hired and have the last opportunities, yet amnesty supporters would have you think that adding millions more workers at this time is good,” said Leah Durant, founder of the Black American Leadership Alliance. ”When so many Americans of all races are out of work, that is ridiculous,” Durant told TheDaily Caller.

“Blacks as well as other low-skilled workers have made their greatest advances when we have low levels of immigration,” she said. “It is time for black leaders to stand up for blacks.”

A June poll by NumbersUSA, a group which want to shrink immigration, reported that only 15 percent of blacks and 44 percent of Hispanics back the Senate bill’s offer of amnesty to 11 million illegal-immigrants. A July poll conducted for advocates of increased immigration reported that 59 percent of registered Latino voters support a goal of “stopping 90 percent of the undocumented immigration in the future.”

Yet most members of the Congressional Black Caucus have agreed to back the Senate immigration bill.

ACORN’s Lewis mocked the mainstream concerns.

“You had some black folks talk about ‘Those people took my job… [and] I used to be in a big house, but now I ain’t,’” she sneered. Those complaints were “madness,” said Lewis, who works as a political activist with other pro-immigration activists, donors and foundations.

In response, Durant condemned black leaders’ rush for increased immigration, saying “They see political advantage in it for themselves, and they’re selling out the blank community.”

Gutierrez urged African-American and Latino legislators to hide their disagreements from the public.

“We have tough conversations when we lock the room — but we are smart enough to lock the room,” he told the audience. “We keep our arguments to ourselves.”

Open Borders advocates would have us believe there were no victims during past periods of rampant immigration enthusiasm. But immigrants to America were hardly innocents eventually shut out by cruel xenophobes. And the American victims of mass immigration are forgotten--perhaps deliberately in order to justify the current dispossession of the historic American nation.

One particularly enlightening episode: the nineteenth-century Chinese influx into California. Capitalists in search of cheap labor imported thousands of unskilled Chinese for the transcontinental railroad and other projects. Their numbers swelled until by 1870 they constituted one third of the male population of the state. When the railroad was finished, unemployed Chinese competed with desperate Americans from the East for jobs….

Employers did not bring the Chinese to America out of charity. Many arrived in ships as packed and filthy as those used in the African slave trade. Indeed, labor historian Vernon Briggs reports that some of the exact same slave ships were used for both purposes.

A pair of suicide bombers detonated their explosives outside a historic church in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday, killing 75 people in the deadliest-ever attack on the country’s Christian minority, officials said.

A wing of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing in the city of Peshawar, saying it would continue to target non-Muslims until the United States stopped drone attacks in the country’s remote tribal region.

The latest drone strike came Sunday, when missiles hit a pair of compounds in the North Waziristan tribal area, killing six suspected militants, Pakistani intelligence officials said.

The attack on the All Saints Church, which also wounded 110 people, underlines the threat posed by the Pakistani Taliban at a time when the government is seeking a peace deal with the militants. It will likely intensify criticism from those who believe that negotiating peace with the Taliban is a mistake.

The attack occurred as hundreds of worshippers were coming out of the church in the city’s Kohati Gate district after services to get a free meal of rice offered on the front lawn, said a top government administrator, Sahibzada Anees.

“There were blasts and there was hell for all of us,” said Nazir John, who was at the church with at least 400 other worshippers. “When I got my senses back, I found nothing but smoke, dust, blood and screaming people. I saw severed body parts and blood all around.”

Survivors wailed and hugged each other in the wake of the blasts. The white walls of the church, which first opened in the late 1800s, were pockmarked with holes caused by ball bearings or other metal objects contained in the bombs to cause maximum damage. Blood stained the floor and was splashed on the walls. Plates filled with rice were scattered across the ground.

The attack was carried out by a pair of suicide bombers who detonated their explosives almost simultaneously, said police officer Shafqat Malik. Authorities found their body parts and were trying to determine their age, he said.

The blasts killed 75 people and wounded another 110, said Jamil Shah, a spokesman at the hospital in Peshawar where the victims were being treated. The dead included women and children, said Sher Ali Khan, another doctor at the hospital.

The number of casualties from the blasts was so high that the hospital was running out of caskets for the dead and beds for the wounded, said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, a former information minister of surrounding Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province who was on the scene.

“This is the deadliest attack against Christians in our country,” said Irfan Jamil, the bishop of the eastern city of Lahore.
One of the wounded, John Tariq, who lost his father in the attack, asked of the attackers, “What have we done wrong to these people? Why are we being killed?”

Ahmad Marwat, who identified himself as the spokesman for the Jundullah wing of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack.

“All non-Muslims in Pakistan are our target, and they will remain our target as long as America fails to stop drone strikes in our country,” Marwart told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Jundullah has previously claimed responsibility for attacks on minority Shiite Muslims in the southwestern Baluchistan province. Hard-line Sunni extremists like the Taliban consider Shiites to be heretics.

The bishop in Peshawar, Sarfarz Hemphray, announced a three-day mourning period in response to the church attack and blamed the government and security agencies for failing to protect the country’s Christians.

“If the government shows will, it can control this terrorism,” said Hemphray. “We have been asking authorities to enhance security, but they haven’t paid any heed.”

Hundreds of Christians burned tires in the street in the southern city of Karachi to protest the bombing.
“Although the government claims they are with minorities, we are being victimized,” said one of the protesters, Tariq Masih. “We need justice.”

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the attack in a statement sent to reporters, saying, “The terrorists have no religion and targeting innocent people is against the teachings of Islam and all religions.”

“Such cruel acts of terrorism reflect the brutality and inhumane mindset of the terrorists,” he said.

Islamic militants have carried out dozens of attacks across the country since Sharif took office in June, even though he has made clear that he believes a peace deal with one of the largest groups, the Pakistani Taliban, is the best way to tamp down violence in the country.

Pakistan’s major political parties endorsed Sharif’s call for negotiations earlier this month. But the Taliban have said the government must release militant prisoners and begin pulling troops out of the northwest tribal region that serves as their sanctuary before they will begin talks.

There are many critics of peace talks, who point out that past deals with the Taliban have fallen apart and simply given the militants time to regroup. Supporters say negotiations are the only way forward since military operations against the Taliban in the tribal region have failed to subdue them.

The U.S. has repeatedly demanded that Pakistan take stronger action against Islamic militants in the country, especially members of the Afghan Taliban who use the nation as a base to carry out cross-border attacks on American troops in Afghanistan.

The U.S. has carried out several hundred drone attacks against Taliban militants and their allies in Pakistan’s tribal region. The attack on Sunday took place in the North Waziristan tribal area, the main sanctuary for militants in the country, said Pakistani intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Pakistani officials regularly decry the drone attacks as a violation of the country’s sovereignty, but the government is known to have secretly supported some of the strikes in the past, especially ones that have targeted Pakistani Taliban militants at war with the state.

The Pakistani and Afghan Taliban are allies but have focused their fight on opposite sides of the border.

Dai Kurokawa/European Pressphoto Agency
Kenyan soldiers took position in front of the Westgate mall on Sunday.

By Nicholas Kulish and Jeffrey Gettleman
September 22, 2013New York Times

NAIROBI, Kenya — The deadly siege at a mall in Nairobi continued Sunday, as the Kenyan government struggled with the question of whether to storm the Shabab militant attackers still holed up inside or keep trying to free people trapped inside after
more than 24 hours.

Witness to a Massacre in a Nairobi Mall
Tyler Hicks, a Times photographer, was nearby when gunmen opened fire on an upscale Kenyan mall.
Audio
Attack on a Kenyan Mall

Tyler Hicks, a New York Times photographer, described arriving at the scene of the attack.
Explosions and Gunfire at Nairobi Mall

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Ben Curtis/Associated Press

Crowds of people gathered near the Westgate mall in Nairobi on Sunday.

“I am aware that many have expressed impatience over the pace at which the situation is unfolding,” President Uhuru Kenyatta said in an address to the nation on Sunday, “and while I empathize with your anxiety at seeing the matter concluded as quickly as possible, I ask also for understanding.”Mr. Kenyatta said that more than 1,000 people had been rescued from the mall at the time of the attack, calling it “remarkable and encouraging.” But the death toll from the militant assault on the crowded Westgate mall the day before continued to rise, climbing to 59. Among them were Mr. Kenyatta’s nephew and his fiancée, he said in his speech. “These are young, lovely people I personally knew and loved. Many of us have lost loved ones,” Mr. Kenyatta said. “Let us mourn them all as one nation and keep them always in remembrance and prayer.” Joseph Ole Lenku, the cabinet secretary for the interior, said on Sunday that the number of wounded had risen to 175, though many had been treated and discharged. “Overnight more people were evacuated from the mall, but a number still remain,” he said. “The government will go out of its way to make sure we do not lose lives.” A huge contingent of Kenyan security forces kept the mall cordoned off Sunday, but officials confirmed that many attackers — between 10 and 15, according to Mr. Lenku — were still inside and active, and that an uncertain number of bystanders remained trapped or in hiding.

The prospect of more violence was tangible, even as a deeply shaken public began to come to grips with the toll already inflicted. The identities of several victims began to come out Sunday, and with it the public mourning of a national tragedy had begun. The local news media reported that a popular radio host was among those killed, as was an elderly poet and professor from Ghana. The radio host, Ruhila Adatia-Sood, was in the parking lot of the Westgate mall where she was hosting a cooking competition, according to reports. She had posted several photos on her Instagram account before the attack. Also among the dead was Kofi Awoonor, 78, a Ghanaian poet and former professor at the University of Ghana. He was also the former chairman of the Council of State. As the morning wore on helicopters continued to circle above the mall and the sound of intermittent gunfire crackled. Medical personnel loaded a wounded member of the security forces dressed in camouflage into an ambulance in the garage of a nearby community complex. The mall, called Westgate, is a symbol of Kenya’s rising prosperity, an impressive five-story building where Kenyans can buy expensive cups of frozen yogurt and plates of sushi. On Saturdays, it is especially crowded, and American officials have long warned that Nairobi’s malls were ripe targets for terrorists. Fred Ngoga Gateretse, an official with the African Union, was having coffee at the ArtCaffe coffee shop on the ground floor around noon on Saturday when he heard two deafening blasts. He cowered on the floor and watched eight gunmen with scarves twisted over their faces firing at shoppers and then up at Kenyan police officers who were shooting down from a balcony as panicked shoppers dashed for cover. “Believe me, these guys were good shooters,” Mr. Gateretse said. “You could tell they were trained.” Even as the fight continued into Sunday afternoon, with the attackers contained to the mall’s third floor, the Kenyan news media reported that one wounded gunman had been captured and died in a hospital. Several witnesses also said one of the attackers was a woman. Several witnesses said the attackers had shouted for Muslims to run away while they picked off other shoppers, executing them one by one. The mall, one of Nairobi’s most luxurious, with glass elevators and some of the most expensive shops in town, is also popular with expatriates. It has served as the place for a power lunch, to catch a movie, to bring children for ice cream. Four Americans were believed to have been injured in the attack, American officials said, and none were reported killed. Secretary of State John Kerry, who called the attack “a heartbreaking reminder that there exists unspeakable evil in our world,” said the wife of a local employee of the American government was among the dead. Two Canadians, one of them a diplomat based in Nairobi, and two French citizens were killed, their governments said. Ilana Stein, a spokeswoman for Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the attack initially took place near the ArtCaffe, an Israeli-owned coffee shop and bakery popular with foreigners that is one of 80 businesses in the mall. Ms. Stein said that one Israeli had been lightly injured, that three others had escaped unharmed and that Israelis had not been specifically targeted. “This time, the story is not about Israel,” Ms. Stein said. On Sunday, Israeli officials denied reports that the country’s security services had gotten involved in the standoff in Nairobi. But a report on the news site Ynet cited a senior Israeli security source as saying that Israeli “consultants” had been helping the Kenyans “formulate a negotiation strategy to resolve the crisis.” A confidential United Nations security report on Saturday described the mall attack as “a complex, two-pronged assault” with two squads of gunmen dashing into the mall from different floors at the same time and opening fire. The Shabab, an Islamist militant group based in Somalia, took responsibility for the attack, saying it was revenge for Kenya’s military operations in Somalia, which began nearly two years ago. “Kenya will not get peace unless they pull their military out of Somalia,” said Ali Mohamoud Rage, the Shabab’s spokesman, in a radio address. The Shabab also sent out a barrage of buoyant Twitter messages, bragging about the prowess of their fighters before Twitter abruptly suspended the account late Saturday. Later, a new one was set up. Mr. Kenyatta called the terrorists cowards and said Kenya would remain “as brave and invincible as the lions on our coat of arms.” He also sounded a somber note, pleading with Kenyans to give blood, and said he had lost “very close family members in this attack,” though he did not specify further. Witnesses described attackers using AK-47 and G-3 assault rifles and throwing grenades. Vivian Atieno, 26, who works on the first floor of the mall, described “intense shooting,” starting around 11 a.m., before she escaped through a fire exit. Haron Mwachia, 20, a cleaner at the mall, said he had survived by climbing over a wall. “I heard several gunshots and managed to run away,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” Hundreds of relatives and friends of the victims of the attack journeyed to various hospitals around the city that were treating the wounded, trying to ascertain the fate of their loved ones. At the MP Shah Hospital, a few miles away from the mall, distressed relatives milled around a tent erected for them outside the hospital as volunteers worked around the clock to provide necessary assistance. Ruth Nyambura, 26, whose uncle worked at the Nakumatt Supermarket in Westgate at the time of the attack, said she was terrified. “I have come along with my family just to find out how he’s doing. He was shot in the head, suffered severe wounds on his one of his eyes and his arms,” said Ms. Nyambura. “He was operated yesterday and we’ve come to see him again. We are being told to wait because the queue is too long.” Kenya serves as the economic engine of East Africa, and while it has been mostly spared the violence and turmoil of many of its neighbors, it has had other terrorist attacks. In 1998, Al Qaeda killed more than 200 people in an enormous truck bombing that nearly leveled the American Embassy in downtown Nairobi, while simultaneously attacking the American Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Islamist terrorists also struck an Israeli-owned hotel on Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast in 2002 and fired missiles at an Israeli airliner. More recently, the Shabab have put Kenya in its cross hairs, especially after Kenya sent thousands of troops into Somalia in 2011 to chase the Shabab away from its borders and then kept those troops there as part of a larger African Union mission to pacify Somalia. The Shabab have attacked churches in eastern Kenya, mosques in Nairobi and government outposts along the Kenya-Somalia border. But this was the boldest attack yet. Within minutes, as the gunmen opened fire with assault rifles, Westgate was plunged into mayhem and carnage. People ran out screaming, and victims soaking in their own blood were wheeled out in shopping carts. Bodies were still sprawled on the mall’s front steps hours afterward, and woozy shoppers continued to emerge from the stores where they had been hiding. “This is such a shock,” said Preeyam Sehmi, an artist, as she stumbled out of the mall, past a phalanx of Kenyan soldiers, after five hours of hiding. “Westgate was such a social place.” Before its Twitter account was shut down, the Shabab sent out a message, saying the fighters in the mall would never give up. “There will be no negotiations whatsoever at #Westgate,” the message said. The Shabab, who have pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda, used to control large parts of Somalia, imposing a harsh and often brutal version of Islam in their territory. They have beheaded civilians and buried teenage girls up to their necks in sand and stoned them to death. But in the past two years, the African Union forces, including the Kenyans, have pushed the Shabab out of most of their strongholds. The worry now, current and former American officials said Saturday, is that this attack could be the start of a comeback. “I think this is just the beginning,” said Rudy Atallah, the former director of African counterterrorism for the Pentagon. “An attack like this gives them the capability to recruit, it shows off their abilities, and it demonstrates to Al Qaeda central that they are not dead.”

Reporting was contributed by Reuben Kyama and Tyler Hicks from Nairobi; Jodi Rudoren from Jerusalem; Mark Mazzetti from Washington; and Mohamed Ibrahim from Mogadishu, Somalia.

"42" and "The Help" had white helmers; "The Butler" and "12 Years a Slave" didn't. The Oscar-nominated director questions the studios' motives in telling black stories with scant African-American input: "It's as if the studios are saying, 'We want it black, just not that black.' "

Whenever a black-themed film comes out, I get the call. And even more stops on the street. "Yo, man. What did you think of that flick?" The truth is, I wish folks would ask me what I think of some general releases. (My two favorite movies of the summer were comedies: SethRogen's This Is the End and Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine.) But, hey, I guess commenting on all things black is my lot in life, being that I'm a recognizable African-American face in an industry that isn't exactly the gold standard when it comes to diversity.

Like everything else in Hollywood, though, black films tend to come in waves, and by some standards 2013 is turning into a banner year. Nearly a dozen black movies will be released before it's over. And with awards season just around the corner, three indie flicks are right in the mix: Ryan Coogler's remarkable and unquestionably authentic debut, Fruitvale Station; my friend Lee Daniels' The Butler, which has drawn a diverse crowd and topped the box office three weeks in a row; and the film everyone is waiting for, Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave.

Hollywood's black film community has always had a one-for-all-and-all-for-one attitude, openly cheering the success of any black-driven movie in the hope its box-office success will translate into more jobs and stories about people of color. But, at the same time, the success of black-themed movies like The Help and this year's 42 points to a troubling trend: the hiring of white filmmakers to tell black stories with few African-Americans involved in the creative process.

The good news first: The Butler, a period drama inspired by a real-life White House butler, has grossed $100 million domestically to date. I'm sure more than a few studio execs checking Labor Day weekend grosses did a Buckwheat double take, like "What wuz dat?" -- and that's not racist, 'cause I'm black and I can say that.

While 12 Years a Slave doesn't open until Oct. 18, I've seen it and can tell you it's a work of art. McQueen, who is black and from the U.K., has created a raw, unflinching look at a black man's descent into one of the darkest chapters of American history. It's as authentic as it gets. And there should be Oscar nods for McQueen; screenwriter John Ridley; lead actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, who gives the performance of a lifetime; and, hopefully, Michael Fassbender, who plays the most compelling big-screen villain this year. (It should be noted 12 Years a Slave would not have seen the light of day if not for Brad Pitt, who produced the film and has a small but crucial role in it. There are few stars as big-hearted as Pitt with an interest in exploring challenging subjects. More should definitely follow his bold example.)

This past spring also saw the release of 42, which was written and directed by Brian Helgeland. I took my whole family to the theater and was happy to see that Jackie Robinson's inspiring story was well told. Newcomer Chadwick Boseman stepped up to the challenge of portraying Jackie, who seemed to carry the weight of an entire race on his shoulders.

And I was delighted to see my childhood hero Harrison Ford in an underrated character performance as Branch Rickey. For me, Helgeland -- with support from Jackie's widow, Rachel Robinson, who served as a consultant, and black producer Darryl Pryor -- hit it out of the park. 42 wasn't overly moralistic and didn't sugarcoat the hardships Robinson endured on and off the field while integrating Major League Baseball.

Yet I couldn't help but wonder how different Spike Lee's version of Jackie's story would've been had he gotten the financing to direct his planned biopic years ago when he had Denzel Washington attached to star. Lee envisioned going beyond Robinson's exploits on the diamond and dramatizing his later years as a businessman, prominent Republican and figurehead for racial equality.

One could argue that Lee couldn't get his film made and Helgeland did, end of the story. But hold up. There's more to it. What if the commercial success of "black films" like 42 and The Help, which also had a white director, are now making it harder rather than easier for African-American writers and directors to find work?

That is exactly what people in certain Hollywood circles are debating. When I brought up the issue with a screenwriter friend, he replied, "It's simple. Hollywood feels like it doesn't need us anymore to tell African-American stories." The thinking goes, "We voted for and gave money to Obama, so [we don't need to] hire any black people."

Just to be clear, there are several white filmmakers who have told black stories and gotten it right. Norman Jewison -- who made In the Heat of the Night, A Soldier's Story and The Hurricane -- is Canadian, with no direct ties to black American culture. But he is a socially conscious renegade who tells stories with great care and sensitivity, and those works, in particular, are phenomenal. And Taylor Hackford did an amazing job with his Ray Charles biopic Ray, which he co-wrote with James L. White. It was a story close to his heart, earning him an Oscar nom for directing and winning a best actor award for Jamie Foxx. Another classic.

I could go on and on about the white directors who got it right and others who missed the mark. But my larger point is that there was a time, albeit very brief, when heroic black figures were the domain of black directors, and when a black director wasn't hired, the people behind the film at least brought on a black producer for his or her creative input and perspective. Spielberg did that on The Color Purple (Quincy Jones) and Amistad (Debbie Allen). Tarantino had Reggie Hudlin on Django Unchained.

But now, that's changing; several black-themed movies are in development with only white filmmakers attached, including a James Brown biopic. That's right, the story of "Soul Brother No. 1, Mr. Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud" is being penned by two Brits for Tate Taylor, director of The Help.

A compelling argument can be made that Brian Grazer, the project's primary producer, has had multiple successes with black talent such as Eddie Murphy and Denzel. And Mick Jagger also is involved, and the Brits tend to have a greater appreciation for African-American creative culture than most white Americans.

Still, it gives one pause that someone is making a movie about the icon who laid down the foundation of funk, hip-hop and black economic self-reliance with no African-American involvement behind the scenes. One of Brown's most famous lines was, "I don't want nobody to give me nothing; open up the door and I'll get it myself." How is that possible when the gatekeepers of this business keep the doors mostly locked shut in Hollywood?

In the black film community, the consensus is that we're entering a new era of "Al Jolson movies." Jolson, for the uninitiated, was the star of the first "talkie," The Jazz Singer in 1927, and is best known for donning blackface and singing "Mammy." He is an apt symbol for what slowly is becoming the norm in Hollywood. Even when there are black directors or writers involved, some of the films made today seem like they're sifted of soul. It's as if the studios are saying, "We want it black, just not that black."

Audiences, though, can smell what's real and what isn't. And there is a noticeable difference between pictures that have significant contributions from African-Americans behind the scenes and those that don't. That's why I can fully relate to the disappointment some friends feel upon hearing about producers holding meetings on black-themed movies without even noticing that no one in the room speaks the language or intimately understands that world.

There are cultural nuances and unspoken, but deep-seated emotions that help define the black American experience. The rhythm and cadence in which we carry ourselves among one another is totally alien to most non-blacks, even if it is a constant fascination to them.

Some in the black film community think that Hollywood needs to pass a Rooney Rule like the NFL, which requires teams to interview a minority candidate when looking to fill a head-coaching position. But that'll never fly. In many ways, The Help's $170 million domestic box office set a new paradigm for how Hollywood wants its black pictures: uplifting, sentimental and inoffensive. It's no one individual filmmaker's fault. It reflects the latent racism that influences what gets made and what doesn't in the studio system.

What Hollywood execs need to realize is that black-themed stories appeal to the mainstream because they are uniquely American. Our story reminds audiences of struggles and triumphs, dreams and aspirations we all share. And it is only by conveying the particulars of African-American life that our narrative become universal. But making black movies without real participation by black filmmakers is tantamount to cooking a pot of gumbo without the "roux." And if you don't know offhand what "roux" is, you shouldn't be making a black film.

When he was nominated for the best director Oscar in 1992 for his first feature Boyz n the Hood, Singleton became the youngest person and first African-American nominated in that category. His subsequent films include 2 Fast 2 Furious, Shaft and Four Brothers.

He came into the world as Sonny Ramkissoon, and he left it as “Raka,” but I knew him as Pa.

My father-in-law was born on November 25, 1925, the eldest of seven children—four boys and three girls.

It was colonial times, indentured servitude had just ended in 1917, and many Indians were only then learning English.

As tough as life can be today, it was much tougher then. That was not an age of chrome wheels, and dreams of easy money.

In 1950, Pa married Ma. It was an arranged marriage, and it lasted over 55 years. That was the way back then, and as strange as it may seem to young people today, those marriages were built on stronger foundations than those of today.

Ma and Pa had nine children. First came Meno in 1954, then seven girls, then Baby Boy in 1976. Baby Boy was born sickly, and died at six months of age. Tauti died in 1998 at 28, and Meno died in 2006 at 51, just 55 days after Ma passed away.

First, Pa built a house in St. Andrews’ Street. Later, he built this house. The garden already had many trees bearing fruits and vegetables, but he planted still more. Although he and Ma never lived a luxurious lifestyle, their children ate a diet fit for a king, full of mangoes, Portugal [Mandarin oranges], saboca [avocadoes], fig [bananas], pigeon peas, chicken, pork and wild meat. Ma would harvest hundreds of pounds of pigeon peas, cassava, sweet potatoes and corn, and Pa would take them into town and sell them.

As a young man, Pa worked in the oil fields. Later, he was a mechanic at PTSC [bus service]. Ultimately, he had his own business for 30 years, delivering gravel to building sites.

The driving took a toll on his skinny frame, and sometimes he would suffer such pain that he would ram his head into the wall.

And of course, when he wasn’t driving, he was working in his garden, fixing his truck, or repairing the house.

Although Pa worked extremely hard, he was known for his intelligence. Not only could he put together a gear box, but he had the mind of an engineer, who understood the principles behind building vehicles, roads, and other structures. And he made a good deal of money off of smart investments.

But all was not work for Pa. A friend told me of how long ago, he helped Pa build a gear box. Six men worked for four hours during the night, and then they did a lime. [Limin’: Getting drunk together on rum.]

Another time, when Meno was young, he and a friend picked up a load of gravel, but Meno worked the brakes wrong, going through the water, and the truck capsized.

By the time the friend called Pa, it was some time later. Meno was too embarrassed to talk, so he had the friend say, “Don’t come without a wrecker” [tow truck]. Pa asked, “Is Meno drunk or sober?” The friend tried to cover for Meno, who had been sober when the accident occurred, but that was hours ago. Besides, he might have remembered to use the brakes correctly, after a lime.

Pa taught Meno how to drive and repair the truck, and he taught the friend who told me these stories. D’Madame [The Boss] loved to help Pa sometimes doing repair work on the truck.

Another favorite pastime of D’Madame was to go into the garden with Pa, and kill snakes, beating them with big clubs.

Although Pa was old-fashioned, he did not, as a rule, discipline the girls. That was Ma’s job.

But sometimes Pa would be puzzled by his daughters. When the younger girls would shower upstairs, they would run around and squeal. Downstairs, Pa would ask Ma, “Lady, what they doin’?”

The only time Pa gave licks was when he thought someone had done something foolish.

One time, [The Boss] was sweeping downstairs, and got a deep gash in her leg from some galvanize [galvanized zinc]. Ma asked her five times what happened, but in her stubbornness, [The Boss] wouldn’t answer. Pa asked her three times, and she didn’t answer. Finally, Pa gave her a hit on the back, and she answered.

With Meno’s help, Ma and Pa raised the most stubborn daughters in the world.

Pa was a teacher in all sorts of ways. When he visited us in New York, he would point out that he was walking around in an old, torn sweater, because no one would care to rob an old beggar.

He would instruct his daughters on how to talk politely to a powerful official, from whom they needed help.

Pa was very old school about speech. He tried to teach his children to speak the Queen’s English, but as much as they respected him, that just wasn’t going to happen. They would speak dialect, and he would ask them, “Where in the dictionary will you find that word?”

Once he retired, Pa found time to study history, geography, and politics. You know that if you want to learn about politics, you can forget everything the politicians, professors, and newspapers say. Pa taught me about TT politics.

We would watch a propaganda show on TV with Diane Seukeran promoting Lloyd Best. Pa would say, “That Lloyd Best is a PNM fanatic!”

The first time D’Madame and I brought our son […] to see Ma and Pa, he was only five months old. Pa would hold [our son] on his belly, while lying on the hammock downstairs. Although Pa would look like he was sleeping, he was awake the whole time, patiently holding [our son], and slowly rocking the hammock for hours at a time, while [our son] happily slept.

Although Pa spent little on himself, he showed great generosity towards his children and grandchildren. For example, D’Madame and I had so many problems with a mischievous bank clerk that we would never have been able to purchase our home, without Pa’s help.

Above all, this man loved his family. When five of the girls got sick with typhoid fever, he rushed them to hospital, and visited every day, until he took them home. Whenever Ma was in the hospital, Pa cooked. Now, Ma was famous for her cooking, and Pa knew nothing about the subject, but to hear D’Madame, he was the world’s greatest chef!

And how he loved his children. When his beautiful, brilliant Tauti died in 1998, a mere 28 years old, Pa sat in the gallery [porch] and wept.

This man never wept, but he wept for her.

In Pa and Ma’s generation, marriages was arranged. He continued the tradition with his oldest girls, but things were changing, and after [one older daughter] got his permission to marry [her husband], Pa got stuck between the past and the future, and didn’t seem to know what to do. Since he raised the girls never to talk to boys, the younger ones was in danger of dying old maids. And that’s how they ended up all over the Western world. Husband hunting!

And that’s how I ended up in Trinidad, reading this great man’s eulogy.

Wherever Pa had daughters living he would travel, to check in on them. When [the youngest] was in England, he went to England. When [another daughter and The Boss] were in New York, he traveled there.

He walked around New York and London, as if he had lived there his entire life. He’d go to the flea market at the Aqueduct Raceway in Queens, and bring home bargains. He’d be up and out early in the morning, saying, “I gotta knock about!”

He visited [The Boss and the other sister] three times in New York over the years, including a visit he made with his granddaughter […] on Long Island. If the child’s American grandparents weren’t going to permit her to travel to Trinidad, Pa was not going to let the child be cheated.

When Pa visited us for the last time in New York, it was in 2007, after Ma’s death. Although he was not feeling well, he still walked at a fast clip.

All he needed to make it through the day was a bottle of water, but one day he forgot it. One minute after he left, I saw the bottle and ran after him. Although we lived on a very long block, I had to run the whole block, in order to catch up with him, before he reached the bus stop.

The Aqueduct Flea Market had begun charging admission to shoppers, and Pa didn’t let anyone crook him, and so he found a new place to shop for bargains.

Until very close to the end, Pa would still go out and work in his garden, and do mechanical repairs, such as fixing the motor on Ma’s washing machine.

For years, Pa lived like a monk. No alcohol, no ham, no fried foods, no transfats. When he visited us, I would have to buy him special cheese and margarine. But once Pa decided that his time had come, and saw that there was no point trying to squeeze an extra day or two out of fate, he relaxed. He asked for some Harvey’s Bristol Cream, and he ate some pork, some fried chicken with French fries, and a little bit of ice cream and chocolate.

Pa may not have been a saint, but he was a righteous man, as good a man as you’ll ever find in this world, and the greatest father-in-law any man could ask for. He was rigid in his ways, and that vexed some people, and they vexed him. But those ways worked.

He once told me that his dream was to come back in a future life, and solve all of the world’s conflicts [especially Kashmir]. I suppose that would include shutting down the PNM.

In late October, with time running out, D’Madame flew back home to see Pa. But there was still the mystery of, [“Raka”]. The banks had a rule against a person having only one name, and so they renamed Pa, [“Raka Raka”].

I told D’Madame to ask Pa why he renamed himself, [“Raka.”]. He just laughed.

I guess that there are some mysteries that every man takes with him to the grave.

About Me

I am a dissident journalist, whose work has been published in dozens of daily newspapers, magazines, and journals in English, German, and Swedish, under my own name and many pseudonyms. While living in internal exile in New York, where I am whitelisted, I maintain NSU/The Wyatt Earp Journalism Bureau and some eight other blogs (some are distinctive but occasional venues, while others are mirrors), and also write for stout-hearted men such as Peter Brimelow and Jared Taylor. Please hit the “Donate” button on your way out. Thanks, in advance.
Follow my tweets at @NicholasStix.

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